Becoming Centered

Episode 73 of the Becoming Centered Podcast continues to look at how direct care staff can incorporate treatment interventions into every part of the residential day.   A lot of that involves interacting with the kids in a way that is consciously intended to promote in them a sense of belonging, a sense of purpose, a sense of agency, and a sense of meaning.   These qualities will make kids more re...

This episode of the Becoming Centered Podcast begins a new arc that focuses on how to build treatment structures and interventions into every minute of the residential shift.   In a treatment program, there will typically be some treatment structures like individual therapy, or even group therapy, that pull kids from the everyday residential structures.   That's certainly of treatment value, howev...

Today's episode is from the archives that are available at  www. BearClanllc.com .   It's a re-cast of Episode 18, addressing how counselors can stabilize kids after an incident involving suicidal ideation or gestures. The role of a counselor is fundamentally different than the role of a therapist in these situations.   The counselor's focus is on helping the client see the suicidal ideation or ge...

This is an archival episode that re-releases Episode 17 on Suicidal Ideation. Episodes 17 and 18 explore how to counsel residents who experience suicidal ideation. Residential children and youth are part of a high-risk group for having thoughts of suicide and, often times, it will fall upon residential staff to provide effective counseling, typically late at night. Learn how to effectively process...

Episode 69 of the Becoming Centered Podcast, building off of the previous two episodes, presents listeners with a powerful tool for residential treatment programs – Expectation Contracts.   Episode 67 presented the underlying conceptual difference between using point systems, behavior contracts, and other "behavioral" change techniques to impact performative surface behaviors versus impacting inne...

Episode 68 of the Becoming Centered Podcast expands on the topic of how to design interventions targeted at changing performative surface behaviors versus interventions designed to inspire inner systemic changes in how kids manage their emotions, adopt self-regulating beliefs and values, and consciously manage relationships with others.   The key design difference is whether or not a point system,...

Becoming Centered Podcast 67, "Performative vs Systemic Change" lays the groundwork for understanding how to design effective behavior-focused program structures that are intended to shape the behaviors of children and youth in residential treatment programs.   The key to effective design of these structures is understanding when and how to focus on performative behaviors versus when and how to fo...

This episode of the Becoming Centered Podcast presents four major parts to a residential treatment program's House Meetings (a regularly scheduled meeting of staff and clients).   Each part, (1) check-ins, (2) announcements, (3) group discussions / agenda items, and (4) wrap-up provides a forum for promoting resilience, self-regulation, social skills, and team-building. Regardless of the specific...

Skillful facilitation of House Meetings is one of the most challenging, but also most impactful, aspects of providing a treatment experience.   Developing a group of troubled kids into a high-performing team, that absorbs each other's misbehaviors and promotes maturation, is a difficult task.   Storming behaviors are common among kids in residential treatment.   In House Meetings, a significant nu...

Running a residential unit for children and youth that goes beyond providing quality Care to also delivering an impactful Treatment experience requires staff to constantly focus on team-building.   It's as a high-performing team that the kids develop their own self-regulation and resiliency; through helping their team-mates manage their daily emotional, cognitive, and behavioral challenges.   One...

Episode 63 of the Becoming Centered Podcast focuses on how to facilitate Check-ins as part of a residential treatment program's House Meetings. Check-ins are an excellent way to start House Meetings.   Literally, people take turns giving a brief report on how they are doing that day.   Structured effectively, the practice of conducting Check-ins can become a foundational technique for a program pr...

Episode 62 of the Becoming Centered podcast is the second episode in an arc focused on House Meetings.  In my experience, House Meetings are the single most effective group structure in the residential week for promoting team-building and for developing the kids into a high-performance team.  When that happens the entire residential experience shifts from having to spend an excessive amount of tim...

Episode 61 of the Becoming Centered podcast starts an episode arc focused on the use of House Meetings in residential treatment programs.  House Meetings are a structured meeting of all the residents and available staff that are part of a residential unit at a treatment program. House Meetings are the single most powerful structure for building a positive unit culture that supports the formation o...

Episode 60 continues along the Group-Level Interventions Pathway.  Building on the last episode, other foundational perspectives for going beyond only providing quality Care to providing transformational Treatment are presented.  These include making a distinction between Care and Treatment, and understanding that behavior management techniques, while often times essential, are part of Care and no...

Episode 59 of the Becoming Centered podcast marks the start of Season 3.   This Season will contain two learning pathways.   One series will focus on working with kids in varying size groups.   Group work ranges from simple interactions in a living room or classroom to managing various activity groups to running group meetings focused on various aspects of team-building and congregate living.   An...

Episode 58 of the Becoming Centered Podcast provides a vision for how to design and facilitate an extremely challenging structure in residential treatment programs – the weekly unit staff meeting.   This episode covers a lot of ground.   Along with presenting a general team-building strategy, an outline is suggested for how to do simple case presentations, for how to organize an issues agenda-driv...

I'm very excited about Episode 57 of the Becoming Centered podcast!   It provides guidance in an area that most human service agencies simply can't fit into their training programs; how to design and facilitate internal staff meetings.   Middle managers, such as Unit Directors, are tasked with running some of the most technically difficult meetings.    With only the training provided by their own...

Episode 56 of the Becoming Centered podcast is part two of a two-part arc focusing on the concept of resilience.  Resilience is the ability to stay centered even in the face of various stressors and triggers.  It's related to, but different than, self-regulation which is the ability to become centered when emotionally dysregulated, cognitively disorganized, behaviorally chaotic, and physiologicall...

Episode 55 of the Becoming Centered podcast focuses on the concept of resilience.  Resilience is the ability to stay centered even in the face of various stressors and triggers.  It's related to, but different than, self-regulation which is the ability to become centered when emotionally dysregulated, cognitively disorganized, behaviorally chaotic, and physiologically / neurologically elevated. Th...

Episode 54 concludes a four-episode arc, within the Unit Supervision Pathway, that presents the 10 techniques that make up the Hierarchy of Interventions.  This episode focuses on how to implement these interventions in a way that goes beyond surface behavior management to supporting the development of self-regulation in children and youth.   This episode particularly focuses on the Forced-Choice...

Episode 53 reviews the first four tools and techniques that make up the Hierarchy of Interventions (Distraction, Engaging, Verbal Redirection, Labeling) and presents the next two steps in the Hierarchy, Changing the Environment and Limit Setting.  A major emphasis is placed on using these techniques to not only manage behaviors, but also to help clients develop their abilities to self-regulate. Be...

This episode is the second in a three-episode arc that presents the Hierarchy of Interventions.  This grouping of 10 interventions forms a core curriculum of counseling skills used by residential staff to encourage the development of kids' self-regulation abilities.  Last episode focused on using Distraction, Engaging, and Verbal Redirection to interrupt and prevent kids from going down an off-tra...

This episode on the Unit Supervisor Learning Pathway moves away from a focus on managerial skills and switches to a focus on counseling skills to be taught to direct-care Child Care Counselors.  It presents 10 interventions, or techniques, for Counselors to use with kids when they become off-track, dysregulated, and uncentered.  Skillful use of this package of interventions starts with understandi...

This episode is the sixth on the Unit Supervisor Learning Pathway.   It's also the third of a three-episode arc that focuses on how to structure an individual supervision meeting.   It also goes beyond the supervision meeting and explores the seven different roles Unit Supervisors have with their Supervisees. As a Counselor, the Supervisor is concerned with the emotional well-being of their Superv...

This episode continues to present a model for how to structure a supervision meeting.  Last episode focused on how a Unit Supervisor sometimes functions primarily as a Counselor.  In that  sub-role, the Supervisor is most concerned with the emotional well-being of their Supervisees.  Although that can fill the entire supervision meeting, generally, after five to ten minutes the meeting agenda will...